In The Times on Saturday the Air Transport Users Council (AUC) said it was disappointed at the number of complaints it had received about airlines refusing to repay passengers’ expenses after the ash crisis. Over 3,000 of the British passengers that were left stranded earlier in the year when the Icelandic volcano erupted are still awaiting compensation.

EU regulations state that airlines should look after stranded passengers, but some carriers told them to make their own arrangements and promised to compensate them later. However, the AUC claimed many passengers have had difficulty claiming compensation from some airlines, the worst include Air France-KLM and Monarch. Possibly even worse, some airlines have also refused to refund passengers who made their own way home with the claim that these expenses were not explicitly covered by the EU regulation.

The AUC is threatening to name the airlines it has received the most complaints about next month. Hopefully this will scare them enough into getting round to paying passengers their just compensation!